Rival Egyptian Factions Sign Document Renouncing Violence

Rival Egyptian parties signed a document renouncing the violence that has killed more than 50 people in the country over the past week and supporting national dialogue.

The party leaders signed the document during a meeting with Egypt’s top religious authority in a bid to find a solution to the ongoing clashes.

Signatories included Egypt’s opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, Hamdeen Sabahi of the National Salvation Front, Head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party Saad El-Katatni, and Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy leader Mahmoud Ezzat.

There is “no solution to the problems of the path of democratic transition except through dialogue,” El-Katatni said. “Participants showed a readiness to offer compromises to make this initiative a success,” he added.

The meeting, chaired by Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, head of al-Azhar mosque and university, comes as the Egyptian crisis enters its second week and efforts to resolve it have made little or no progress.

The opposition accuses President Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood party of monopolizing power.